After leaked Trump administration memos, trans Memphians plea for help from allies

LGBT leaders reacted with fury Monday to a report that the Trump administration is considering adoption of a new definition of gender that would effectively deny federal recognition and civil rights protections to transgender Americans. (Oct. 22)
AP

A partial view of the crowd that showed up to show support to a trans population that risks losing their identity under the Trump administration.(Photo: Micaela A Watts)

Responding to a report that the Trump administration was moving to define gender as biologically determined at birth and unable to be changed, supporters of transgender rights gathered Sunday in front of Memphis' LGBTQ community center, OUTMemphis.

Kayla Gore, an African-American trans woman who is in charge of resources and programming for trans people at OUTMemphis, calls the report a direct threat to the existence of transgender people and said it cannot go unnoticed.

Gore set to work on organizing a rally for trans visibility that delivered condemnation of any federal attempt to erase the gender identity of an estimated 1.4 million Americans who identify as trans.

"We're already marginalized," said Gore, "This just adds on to that. It adds more barriers and more layers to our oppression that we experience on a daily basis. It gives people the right to discriminate against us."

As a transgender woman of color, Gore is statistically more vulnerable to violence than white trans people.

Possible restrictions to name changes, medical care

"In relation to gender identity, now currently we're able to change our name and change our gender markers on government documents," Gore said. "These regulations would cancel that out, and they could cause problems for people who have already changed their gender on identifying documents."

Gore also lists medical care as one of the most basic needs likely to be affected.

"After surgery, I may need services typically only available to a biological woman. We have access to these services now, but with this implication — we may not be able to access those," Gore said. "This threatens lives."

The memo is proposed by the Department of Health and Human Services, and could directly affect programs and activities funded by federal subsidies. This could translate to services provided by health departments that must comply with the federal definition of gender.

At Sunday's rally in front of OUTMemphis, dozens of people gathered on the lawn and around the house that the organization occupies: some cisgender - people who identify emotionally and psychologically with the sex they were were assigned at birth - and some trans.

One by one, speakers told about their day-to-day lives as a trans person, highlighting their formative years when their trans identity was not fully understood.

"I knew...I knew when I was five years old," said Dr. Jami Woods, now 63 and a clinical psychologist with the University of Tennessee system. "I put my mom's high heels on and her lipstick and I'm thinking, girl — you lookin' so pretty."

Jami Woods, 63, recently came out as a transgender woman after living in silence for more than 50 years.(Photo: Micaela A Watts)

Speaking about her relatively recent transition at a later point in life, Woods acknowledges that trans youth growing up today have more resources, like YouTube, for understanding their identity. But none of that matters, Woods said, if your own society won't protect you.

She likens it to having to hide who she was for decades, sometimes waiting for her family to go out for the day before she, then living as a cisgender man, would put on her dress and high heels and breathe freely.

"I didn't tell anybody that I was trans for 50 years," said Woods. "And there's a problem with gender dysphoria guys. It doesn't get better, it gets worse."

Gender dysphoria is defined by the American Psychiatric Association as a condition in which the gender you are assigned based on biology does not match the emotional and psychological gender you identify with.

Woods was just one of the speakers at Sunday's rally. Other speakers used only their first names out of concern for their safety, according to Gore.

Gore closed the rally with yet another plea from the transgender community to the allies in their lives: help them.

"We don't know any other way we could ask for help at this point," said Gore. "We are under attack and we need you, we need everyone to stand with us."